East London News A Force for the community…
THE FORMER City Farm in Beckton’s King George V Park is to rise again, says Newham Council – as an ambitious Community Farm and Green Skills Hub.
The former City Farm was warmly supported by local residents, who campaigned hard to save it from closure. In September 2021, they presented the Cabinet with a petition signed by 48,000 people. Locals hope that Newham Council will be consulting on a similar scale over its new plans for the site.The Beckton Parks Masterplan is very vague on what kind of new farm the Council wants to see on this site, which has a long history of being a community farm and a green space.
The Council is looking for a site that can deliver “lasting social, environmental and economic benefits for residents and the wider borough”. It hopes the site will deliver training in green skills; urban agriculture (allotments?); education; volunteering (“unpaid labour”); wellbeing programmes and community engagement.
To deliver this ambitious vision, the Council is looking to find partners with experience in developing and working with green projects to plan what will happen in more detail.
Councillor John Whitworth – Cabinet Member for Air Quality, Climate Emergency & Environment – said, “Over the next few years, Newham will be growing on a huge scale, with lots of new development taking place right across the borough. That’s why assets such as this are so important. We may live in a city, but we still need that connection to the countryside.”
Proposals must be received by the Council by 28th February 2026.
●For more information, go to:
Newham Council press release
●To obtain a full information pack, email:
regeneration@newham.gov.uk
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